King Lear (1971) ( Korol Lir )

King Lear (1971) (DVD) (*)

~~$26.99~~ $23.98

Original Title: Korol Lir
Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
Russian ( Mono )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
132 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (2.35:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Black & White

Movie filmed in 1971 and produced in:
Soviet Union ( Russia, Eastern Europe )

Directed By:
Grigori Kozintsev
Iosif Shapiro

Written By:
William Shakespeare
Grigori Kozintsev

Actors:
Jüri Järvet ..... King Lear
Elza Radzina ..... Goneril
Galina Volchek ..... Regan
Valentina Shendrikova ..... Cordelia
Oleg Dal ..... Fool
Karlis Sebris ..... Gloster
Leonhard Merzin ..... Edgar
Regimantas Adomaitis ..... Edmund
Vladimir Yemelyanov ..... Kent
Aleksandr Vokach ..... Cornwall
Donatas Banionis ..... Albany
Aleksei Petrenko ..... Oswald
Juozas Budraitis ..... King of France
Roman Gromadsky
Nikolai Kuzmin

Synopsis:

King Lear of England (Jüri Järvet) retires from his throne of power. His decision to divide his kingdom among his elder daughters, over the warnings of his youngest Cordelia (Valentina Shendrikova), sparks off a chain of events that engulfs the entire countryside. Lear's final days are marked by dissension, internecine conflict and terrible violence. Humiliated and banished by his daughters, the King wanders the countryside like a beggar, accompanied by his Fool and a few faithful servants. Driven mad by despair, Lear's megalomania consumes him to the point of blindness. One of William Shakespeare's darkest works, King Lear receives vivid expression in this esteemed Russian rendition. The film's use of widescreen and its stark black-and-white cinematography provide an expansive cinematic dimension to the tragedy. Working with a translation from Nobel Laureate Boris Pasternak, Grigori Kozintsev in the final film of his career, fashions a fitting twilight work; achieving in this harsh tale of mortality and power, a tranquility in form and assurance of vision.

Shakespeare's 17th century masterpiece about the "Melancholy Dane" was given one of its best screen treatments by Soviet director Grigori Kozintsev. Kozintsev's Elsinore was a real castle in Estonia, utilized metaphorically as the "stone prison" of the mind wherein Hamlet must confine himself in order to avenge his father's death. Hamlet himself is portrayed (by Innokenti Smoktunovsky) as the sole sensitive intellectual in a world made up of debauchers and revellers. Several of Kozintsev directorial choices seem deliberately calculated to inflame the purists: Hamlet's delivers his "To be or not to be" soliloquy with his back to the camera, allowing the audience to fill in its own interpretations. Rarely seen in the US, this Hamlet (or Gamlet, as it was known in Russia) is not always successful, but is certainly more innovative -- and lively -- than Olivier's wildly overpraised 1948 version. Director Grigori Kozintsev would follow Hamlet with an equally radical adaptation of King Lear in 1970.

King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.

This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 10 November, 2011.